Pvt. Robert J. Toress was killed in action on July 31, 1950 in Ko Chang, South Korea. He was 18 and had been in the country a month. He’d grown up on Elm Street in West Springfield, part of a large Italian family that originally spelled the surname Torressi. Family members said Robert Toress loved radio and electronics.

But in those chaotic early months of the Korean Conflict Toress’ was initially listed only as missing in action. That’s what his family was told -- and as near as anyone can tell, that’s all they were ever told, said James G. Berrelli Jr., West Springfield’s veterans services officer.

The Toress family didn’t learn more even after the Korean War ended in 1953 with an uneasy truce that is still in place today.

“His mother never stopped looking for answers,” Melloni said. “She never gave up.”

Berrelli did some checking and learned that the Army declared Toress killed in action back in the early 1950s. The family had just never been notified.

So he made Toress and his story part of the town’s annual Memorial Day observance. Veterans decided Monday morning to cancel the parade due to rain.

The Korean War is often called the “Forgotten War” because it occurred just after World War II and was later overshadowed in the public mind by Vietnam.

“Robert Toress was a forgotten soldier in a forgotten war,” Berrelli said. “But West Springfield never forgets its veterans.”

Toress’ name is now inscribed on West Springfield’s war memorial, one of 126 veterans who gave their lives in the service of their country: 6 from the Revolution, 21 from the Civil War, 3 from World War I, 86 from World War II, three from Korea, six from Vietnam and one from Iraq.